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Great Wasting
| rarity = Very Rare | type = Global Enchantment | casting_cost = | upkeep_cost = | research_cost = | effects = Each turn, anywhere between 3 and 6 random land tiles on the overland map are Corrupted. Tiles within the catchment areas of Towns belonging to Great Wasting's caster are not affected. The Unrest-quelling effects of buildings in all enemy towns are nullified. Unrest in all enemy towns further rises by 1'. }} Great Wasting is a Very Rare Global Enchantment belonging to the realm. For it may be cast on the overland map to begin Corrupting the land on both Planes. While the spell is in effect, each turn the game will Corrupt anywhere between 3 to 6 land tiles at random locations on the map. Corrupted tiles give no bonuses and produce no for nearby towns. Ocean and Shore tiles are never targeted, and neither are tiles that are already Corrupted. Furthermore, any tile within the catchment area of a Town belonging to the caster of Great Wasting will not be targeted by the spell. Great Wasting requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn to remain in operation. Tiles corrupted by the spell will remain corrupted even if it dissipates, and may only be Purified by special units or spells designed to do so. Effects Great Wasting will slowly Corrupt the land tiles on both Planes, causing them to provide no benefits to nearby towns. If allowed to run long enough, it will Corrupt all land except the area around the caster's own Towns. Additionally, each enemy empire will experience a sharp rise in Unrest while this spell is in effect. Mass Corruption While Great Wasting is in effect, at the start of each of its caster's turns the game rolls a random number between 3 and 6. This is the number of land tiles that will become corrupted. The game then selects 3-6 target tiles as necessary - completely at random. Each of these tiles will become Corrupted. Valid Targets corrupted only the tiles ''outside the catchment area. The spell may not choose any of these pristine land tiles as its targets.]] When the game looks for new tiles to Corrupt, it will only choose tiles that conform to the following criteria: #Tiles on either plane are valid. #Unexplored tiles are also valid. #Ocean and Shore tiles are not valid. #Tiles that are already Corrupted are not valid. #Tiles within the catchment area of a Town belonging to Great Wasting's caster are not valid. The image on the right illustrates a town's Catchment Area. Since this town belongs to the caster of Great Wasting, tiles providing this town with bonuses may not be randomly targeted by the spell, and therefore remain pristine. Note that other wizards may cast the Corruption Spell on these tiles as normal, and may even cast their own Great Wasting spell which will target these pristine tiles. It is only the Great Wasting cast by the owner of the town that will avoid corrupting its environs. If the town changes ownership while Great Wasting is still in effect, it may now freely target these tiles since the town no longer belongs to its caster. Effects of Corruption : Corruption covers the targeted tile with an evil presence that disables all benefits given by that tile to nearby Towns. Towns normally receive various bonuses from any tile within their catchment area (a 5x5 square centered around the town, minus the corners). These bonuses may include extra speed, extra income, and an increase to the Maximum Population of the tile as a result of bonus . They also receive bonuses from Minerals on those tiles, if they exist. When a tile is corrupted, these bonuses disappear. As a result, the town's output of and may fall by some amount, and the town's Maximum Population (and hence Population Growth and/or production) will drop by a small amount. Minerals in a corrupted tile no longer give any benefits either. As a result of output decrease, one or more of the town's free citizens may automatically be turned into permanent Farmers in order to keep its Population fed. Also, the drop in Population Growth may result in citizens dying (due to negative growth). Corruption of a land tile can be undone in several ways. The most common method is to create Normal Units that have the Purify ability, and send them out to undo corruption - a process taking a few turns per tile. Several Fantastic Creatures and Heroes may be acquired that also have this ability. Furthermore, there are spells that will Purify land without requiring you to send out any units, such as Gaia's Blessing. Rival Rebellions While Great Wasting is in play, all Towns across the map except the caster's own will experience a very great increase in Unrest - turning many citizens into Rebels. Great Wasting was supposed to cause exactly '''1 additional citizen in each rival Town to go Rebel. But by a bug, this spell also cancels the pacifying effects of Shrines, Temples, Parthenons, and Cathedrals, as well as the Animists' Guild and Oracle. So, developed cities will suffer even more. For example, 5 more citizens are turned into Rebels in a city with a Cathedral, assuming that no Unrest reducing effect manages to offset this. The Armageddon spell does not exert a cumulative effect with Great Wasting. If both spells are in effect, only Armageddon's +2 Unrest is counted (inflicting the aforementioned cathedral city with 6 rebels). As a result of this, all other empires will have to either accept the reduced production and reserves, or dramatically reduce their Tax Rate to quell the population (thus reducing income as well). This blow to all rivals' economies further increases the advantage gained by Great Wasting's caster. Usage Great Wasting may be cast only on the overland map, for the substantial Casting Cost of . Its effects, as described above, will occur at the start of each of the caster's turns as long as Great Wasting is in play. Unlike the Corruption Spell, there is no animation showing tiles being corrupted: the black cloud will simply appear on all newly-affected tiles as soon as the turn begins. You may need to survey the map to see which tiles were affected - but remember that unexplored tiles may also be corrupted by this spell, as could tiles on the other Plane. Great Wasting is not responsible for maintaining the actual Corruption effect - It inflicts a tile with Corruption permanently. Therefore, dispelling the Great Wasting will only stop additional tiles from becoming corrupted, and will not remove existing corruption from any tile. There are methods to Purify corrupted tiles, none of which has anything to do with dispelling magics. After casting Great Wasting, its name will appear on the "Overland Enchantments" list in the Magic menu. The color in which the name is printed indicates which wizard controls the spell. If the player controls the spell, he or she may cancel it manually by clicking the name of the spell. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus conserving for other spells. Acquisition As a Very Rare spell, Great Wasting may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least Spellbooks. Great Wasting may not be acquired at the start of the campaign regardless of how many Spellbooks the wizard possesses. It must either be Researched during the game, or acquired through other means. Wizards with to Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research Great Wasting during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With or Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting. Great Wasting has a base Research Cost of . With at least Spellbooks, the Great Wasting spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell. Strategy Great Wasting initiates a simultaneous economic attack on each and every rival wizard. Although it doesn't specifically corrupt tiles near to enemy towns (instead simply corrupting tiles at random all over the map), it will eventually end up corrupting tiles near to those towns, thus reducing output from rival cities. Furthermore, the increased Unrest to all rival empires will put a dent in their ability to wage war against you. They must either reduce their Tax Rate or suffer a reduction in and output as a result of Rebels appearing in each town. Since the caster's own towns and their catchment areas are immune, one possibility would be to simply cast the spell and then sit back and watch as the world becomes uninhabitable. Enemy towns unlucky enough to get their catchment areas covered with Corruption will slowly begin to wither away back to Hamlet size, assuming the spell runs on long enough and the enemy is not diligent enough in producing Purification units or casting protective/purifying spells. Creation of new towns may have some drawbacks: once you create a new Settlement it receives protection from additional corruption within its catchment area (just like all your other towns), but already-corrupted tiles in its vicinity would probably need to be cleared up manually to allow it to grow properly. When you're satisfied with the global situation, you may always cancel Great Wasting manually to conserve , but it's usually better to leave the spell running for as long as possible. If you wish to protect your own towns from a rival's Great Wasting, there are two good spells that will do the trick: Gaia's Blessing from the , and Consecration from the . Stream of Life will help combat the increased Unrest. -using wizards will more likely resort to Disjunction True - dispelling the rival's Great Wasting altogether. None of these methods are cheap, by far. Category:Global Enchantments Category:Chaos